2019 International Conference on Computing, Communication, and Intelligent Systems (ICCCIS)
AUTOMATED SMART IRRIGATION SYSTEM (ASIS)
Anamika Mitra1, Pooja2, Gaurav Saini3
1,2
Department of Computer Science & Technology, 3Department of Civil Engineering, Sharda University
1
anamika.mitra@sharda.ac.in, 2pooja.1@sharda.ac.in, 3gaurav.saini@sharda.ac.in
Abstract- A smart city boasts of services that aim to enhance the
quality of life by not only providing the basic amenities, but also the
efficiency and performance of systems and processes that ensure the
economics and sustainability. A major emphasis is placed on
environmental quality and habitable ambience within the city.
Greenbelts not only improve the air quality but also lend an aesthetic
appearance to the city. However, the maintenance and upkeep of the
greenbelts is resource-intensive due to the manual nature of the work
and inefficient irrigation methods. Conventionally, the city’s
greenbelts are watered manually by using pipelines fed through a
mobile water tanker, which moves at a slow pace, while a worker
directs the water pipe to the greenbelts. This process does not take
into account the variations in the water requirements of different
plants as well as the soil moisture levels and also the efficiency of
irrigation and hence are wasteful. A smart solution can be a smart
irrigation system that takes into account the water requirements, soil
moisture levels, ambient environmental conditions, air moisture level
and optimizes the water usage with minimal human intervention.
Keywords: Irrigation system, Internet of Things, soil moisture sensor,
temperature sensor, crop quality, fertilizer, NPK sensor, ARIMA
1. INTRODUCTION
India is an agriculture based country where 70% of land comes
under agriculture Agriculture and its allied activities is the
main source of livelihood for approx 80% of the total rural
population. In which almost 52% of the labor is employed for
cultivation. Agriculture contributes to the country's GDP in
between 14 – 15 %. As the population is increasing,
simultaneously the requirement is rising, for that there is an
immense need to modernize the conventional method of
agriculture.
In agriculture it is big and complex problem in hand to solve,
how much water is required for crops and in which interval
through an automated system. A smart automated system can
solve it using new and smart technologies like IoT, sensors and
wireless technologies to operate in from remote location, and this is the main
objective this paper.
This solution can solve big concern of farmer and other hand can save time,
water and human resources. Solution will achieve this ability using different
sensors (e.g. temperature, soil moisture sensor, air moisture sensor) and
decision making will done by micro controllers. The sensed data received from
sensors will be sending to server database using wireless transmission.
In crop cultivation, field crop needs to be managed in terms of
pesticides, fertilizers, and irrigation for better growth of crops.
Precision agriculture (PA) is the concept used. The sensed data
such as temperature, humidity, fertilizer, and soil moisture can
be provided as input by PA to decision support system in order
to maximize the crop growth. Also the objective should be
maximizing the crop growth with the optimized use of
available resources and without affecting the environment.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
ISBN: 978-1-7281-4826-7/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
For crop yield in agriculture predicting the amount and time to
provide water plays a crucial role. Future planning can be done
for the crop production, storage and their marketing to the
market. Inclusion fo risk management techniques can be
included for the future goals. To estimate production and
watering strategies for a specific crop in advance two methods
are used. Statistical methods(ARIMA) and Holt-Winter
method is being used [9]. The second method is machine
learning methods like (SupportVectorMachine and artificial
neural network[10]). Agriculture in India is hugely dependent
on rainfall, especially in summer season so create such system
is utmost important to save water resources and offer more
yield. Artificial neural network is used in system to process
information data collected by sensors, to predict production
yield of selected crop. This information includes various
parameters like type of soil, temperature (average
temperature), rainfall in selected area, and humidity. In this
paper evolution has been done as how these crops related
parameters affect crop growth and yield [11]. It is observed
that different atmospheric parameters, soil type, soil
composition and required soil moisture can impact on
production rate of crop. The technique discussed in this paper
also predicts suitable crop production rate in advance.
Artificial neural network is used as an tool for modeling and
prediction of crop yield [5]. Archana et al. (2016) presented a
paper in which the humidity and soil moisture sensors are
being studied. These sensors were placed in the plant’s root.
Based on those values, collected from the sensor, the
microcontroller was used to control the supply of water to the
field. This system was a little drawback as it fails to intimate
the farmer about the field status [1]. V. R. Balaji et al projected
a paper in which states that the system can derive power from
sunlight through photovoltaic cells. This system has least
dependency on electricity. The soil moisture sensor has been
used and based on the sensed values PIC microcontroller is
used to ON/OFF the motor pump. Weather forecasting is not
included in this system [3]. Sonali D. Gainwar et al. proposed
a paper, which states that in soil parameters such as pH,
humidity, moisture and temperature are collected. This system
is completely automated which turns the motor pump ON/OFF
as per the level of moisture in the soil. The current field status
is not downcast to the farmer[2]. R.Subalakshmi (2016)
proposed a paper to make irrigation system more simpler.
According to her paper, the complexities involved in irrigation
can be tackled with automation system using microcontroller
and GSM. Based on the sensed values from soil moisture,
temperature and humidity sensors, the GSM sends message to
the farmer based on these parameters when exceeded some
fixed threshold value set in the program. Drawback is that the
nutrient content in the soil is not determined [4]. Karan
Kansara (2015) projected an automated irrigation system. In
that they have studied using humidity and temperature sensors
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 2019 International Conference on Computing, Communication, and Intelligent Systems (ICCCIS)

to sense the soil conditions.Based on the results , WATER DEPTH DETECTOR

microcontroller will control the water flow into the farming
Water depth sensor can measure the depth of the water level in
land. Farmer will be informed through Mobile devices. This
the soil. Water depth sensor is very helpful in the irrigation
system lacks in monitoring the nutrient content present in the
process. This sensor will clearly help to record the water
soil [5]. G.Parameswaran and K.Sivaprasath (2016) proposed
content level in the soil ,which ultimately help in monitoring
a smart drip irrigation system using IOT in which humidity,
the amount of water to be delivered to the fields during
temperature and pH sensors are used. Irrigation status is
irrigation process. This will ensures the delivery of no excess
updated to the server or local host using personal computer. In
water and also helpful in ensuring absence of shortage of water
this work the farmer must have access to the internet in order
to the crops in the fields
to get the field condition report [6]. S.Reshma and B.A.Sarath
(2016) proposed an IOT based automatic irrigation system 4. METHODOLOGY
using WSN.This system has various sensors to measure the
soil parameters. This system was further connected to a GUI The proposed research work focuses on the use of effective
with the web to the user.This helps them to monitor and IOT devices and efficient algorithms for refinement of sensed
control the system from distant location. Weather monitoring data. Following if the system flow (Figure 1):-
was lacking as well [7]. Ahmad et al. (2001) analyzed water STEP 1: Installation of various sensors in the crop land.
quality data using an ARIMA model.
STEP 2: Data generation from various sensors: can be on a
3. SENSORS USED daily basis at an interval of a fixed time duration.
This system is based on Nodes, which are responsible for STEP 3: Collected data is sent to the microcontroller /
sending data from sensors. Each sensor should be connected to Raspberry Pi board.
this node. Node can be a cloud gateway or Wifi connection, or
a serial connection. Sensors are required to be connected to a STEP 4: Created time series dataset is then analysed using
(WiFi based) microcontroller, further the microcontroller can ARIMA for prediction. Final prediction on Water supply is
read periodically the sensor and then it can send the sensor made by combined result of real time weather forecast data
data to Raspberry pi may be by using protocols such as and sensor generated data.
Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), HTTP, TCP, STEP 5: Decision tree algorithm implemented to make ON/
UDP. However, Raspberry pi itself can read the data from that OFF of the pump
WiFi microcontroller periodically by hosting a server. There
are many options available for choosing microcontroller IoT devices –The usage of IOT devices has tremendously
such as ESP8266 boards (Nodemcu/Wemos d1 mini), or increased in the farming process, as a result farming process
Arduino with ESP8266 or some other boards like Linkit has been accelerated and the crop production has increased.
smart 7688 or Onion Omega etc. Now a day’s modern types of IoT devices are used in smart
farming effectively which enhances the functionalities of
SOIL MOISTURE SENSOR farming. The smart farm, embedded with IoT systems, can
frequency domain technology is utilized to find the volumetric support a wide range of devices from diverse agricultural
water constant(VMC) of the soil. This can be done by using device manufacturers [8].
sensor which measures these on the basis of dielectric constant
parameters .
The above mentioned sensor consumes low power and has
very high resolution. This increases its feature to make more
accurate measurements (i.e. on hourly basis) over a long
period of time with minimal battery usage. In addition, the
sensors include high frequency oscillation as an inherent
feature, which helps the sensor to record the soil moisture
accurately with minimal salinity and textural effects.
HUMIDITY SENSOR
A humidity sensor (or hygrometer) provides the complete
report on moisture and air temperature both.
SOIL NUTRIENT SENSOR
Fertilizer is added to soils to increase plant productivity. A
common type of fertilizer is called NPK fertilizer because of
its ingredients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium
(K). So to complete an automated irrigation system,
monitoring nutrient content of soil is necessary to decide how Figure 1. Flow diagram of the system
much extra contents of these nutrients are to be added in the soil to
increase crop fertility. TIME SERIES ANALYSIS FOR PREDICTION

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 2019 International Conference on Computing, Communication, and Intelligent Systems (ICCCIS)

Time Series Analysis is widely used prediction model usually quickly indicate the specific ARIMA model being used. The
for predicting the weather conditions. However data generated parameters of the ARIMA model are defined as follows:
from various sensors is time series data only, so this model can
● p: The number of lag observations included in the model, also
be built on any type of sensor data.
called the lag order.
ARIMA
● d: The number of times that the raw observations are
In general, an ARIMA model is characterized by the notation differenced, also called the degree of differencing.
ARIMA (p, d, q) where p, d, q denote orders of auto-
regression, integration (differencing) and moving average● q: The size of the moving average window, also called the
respectively. In ARIMA, time series is a linear function of past order of moving average.
actual values and random shocks. It caters to a standard Machine learning is the most important technology in
structures in time series data, and provides a simple yet knowledge mining. Due to the use of machine learning
powerful method for making time series forecasts. technique application pattern recognition in this field is
simplified and accuracy of the result is improved. C4.5
● AR: Auto regression. A model that uses the dependent
decision tree learning algorithm is used in [7] to develop
relationship between an observation and some number of
classifier extraction tool to categorize disease of rice crop in
lagged observations.
Egypt and surrounding area. Also till date, many tools are
● I: Integrated. The use of differencing of raw observations developed for prediction of crop growth or production rate in
in order to make the time series stationary. agriculture field.
● MA: Moving Average. A model that uses the 5. WORKING OF ASIS
dependency between an observation and a residual error
As represented in figure 2, an automated smart irrigation
from a moving average model applied to lag
system is implemented, where sensors are installed in the field.
observations.
The sensors used for this implementation are:- soil moisture
Each of these components is explicitly specified in the model sensor, NPK sensor, temperature sensor.
as a parameter. A standard notation is used of ARIMA (p,d,q)
where the parameters are substituted with integer values to

Figure 2. Working of Automated Smart Irrigation System

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 2019 International Conference on Computing, Communication, and Intelligent Systems (ICCCIS)

This agriculture drone is equipped with high density camera [7] Ryu M, Yun J, Miao T, Ahn IY, Choi SC, Kim J. Design and
Implementation of a Connected Farm for Smart Farming System;
and it is supposed to capture images of crop throughout the 2015.
field at different geographical locations. A part from these [8] Sujjaviriyasup T, Pitiruek K. Agricultural product fore-casting using
sensors, quality of crop is also being monitored through machine learning approach
periodic patrolling on the field by drone. [9] Suhas M Patil, Sakkaravarthi R. Internet of Things based smart
agriculture system using predictive analytics.
Also when sensors are installed physically, their health [10] Dahikar SS, Rode SV. Agricultural crop yield prediction using
monitoring is required for proper functioning of the automated artificial neural network approach. Int J Innov Res Electr Electron
Instrum Control Eng 2014;2(1):683-6.
system. For sensor health monitoring, all sensor nodes are [11] Singhal, Gaurav & Bansod, Babankumar & Mathew, Lini. (2018).
connected to a head sensor node. This head sensor node Real time Crop health monitoring using Remote Sensing and ancillary
collects data gathered by the sensor nodes and information information using GIS.
about anomaly occurring at sensor node. It will alert the user
on sensor node going down. The collected data is sent to the
micro-controller board and dataset so generated is analysed
using ARIMA for further prediction. The images collected
from drone are also processed for their color component.
Machine learning classification algorithm is used to identify
bad quality images. For any indication of low quality of crop
an SMS alert is sent to farmers. After all data has been
processed, as per the prediction, pump for fertilizer and water
will get opened or closed. For water pump, we have also
included weather forecasting data for coming two days for
better water management. The prediction from ARIMA model
and forecast are mapped to know if water reservoir needs to be
opened or not. Say if the weather forecast is of rainfall for the
next coming day and ARIMA predicts requirement of water in
fields, then water pump will be opened only if the soil
moisture content is very below possibly leading to dried crop;
else the water will not be pumped to the fields and the system
will wait for expected next day rainfall.
5. CONCLUSION
Primary objective of this proposed self operated, smart
automated irrigation solution is to enable framer save time and
resource, save water resources, get more yield from crop and
hence save cost.
Taking into consideration on all four parameters such as soil
moisture, temperature, NPK soil component and crop quality
through images has made this system more efficient and
effective for automated irrigation. Moreover the inclusion of
weather forecasting will help in water management.
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